Surveillance photo of the vehicle that left the parking lot with the child in question.

Police said a little girl is safe with her family, and was never missing although some witnesses feared the child might have been abducted Saturday night in Jacksonville in the 9000 block of Southside Boulevard.

Detectives were able to track down her parents, and determined that they were with the girl the entire time, said Shannon Hartley, a Jacksonville Sheriff's Office spokesman, said in a news release Sunday morning.

Witnesses leaving the Target store around 5:45 p.m. Saturday found a girl in a shopping cart between the ages of five and seven without supervision, Sgt. Shawn Coarsey said.

The witnesses asked the child where her parents were and she pointed across the parking lot to Academy Sporting Goods, Coarsey said.

When the witnesses started walking back toward Target to get help, a blue Toyota sport-utility vehicle pulled up and asked where the girl's parents were and she pointed to Academy again, Coarsey said.

The man in the SUV then said he would take the girl to her parents and the girl got out of the cart and into his vehicle, Coarsey said.

The man drove toward Academy and then out of the shopping center with the girl in the vehicle, Coarsey said.

There had been no reports of missing children in the area and at that time it was not considered a bona fide abduction, according to a Sheriff's Office news release.

But because of the witnesses' concern, investigators worked to verify the information and locate the man and child, the release said.